First ever Sale Music Festival a roaring success!

Around 1000 music lovers descended on the lawns of the Sale Botanical Gardens to attend the inaugural Sale Music Festival on Sunday.

Pods of picnickers perched under the shade of gumtrees, as
local performers entertained Sale locals with a diverse range of musical sets, that
included everything from pub rock, to blues to country to bossa nova and flamenco.

There was something for everyone in the lineup, from the rockin'
blues of the First Tuesday Music Club,
to the wailing Gypsy Kings style chants of Karavena
Flamenco, to a moving acoustic set by high school student Jordy McMillan, which echoed a young
Dolly Parton to the gentle bluegrass tunes of local country star Harry Hookey, Cowwarr's answer to the late Gram Parsons.

The standard of local
performers was incredibly high and the relaxed, casual atmosphere of the day was a unifying
experience for the largely quiet and conservative town. There are not many
activities that bring Sale's often fragmented community of retirees, teens, people
with disabilities, regionally posted service professionals and young families together. However, if Sale was missing a `soulful' festival experience,
to rival the events of its South and West Gippsland neighbours, then things
suddenly just got interesting.

Organised by a small committee of local residents, the free
event was born completely by a team of volunteers, local business people and a handful
of private donations to cover expenses. Even the musicians donated their
services.

In the spirit of people power being able to 'make things
happen', the festival was the idea of seasoned Relay for Life event organiser David Harrington.

"It's exactly actually what I imagined it would be",
said Harrington, who with his wife Heather can now add music festival event organisers
to their ever expanding repertoire of community events."People
coming along for a free community event, bringing their families, with lots of
children's musical activities, bringing a picnic, a rug and a chair and
listening to seven or eight hours of very talented local musicians, overlooking
the beautiful Lake Guthridge."

With catering by the Lions and Rotary, and ice-cream and
water sales keeping the crowd cool, the hot weather spell was broken, by thick drops
of rain in the late hours of the afternoon. Dancing bare foot in the moist grass, a dedicated
remaining tribe of kids, tipsy aunties, romantic couples and barbeque dads broke
away from their eskys and camping chairs to dance in the rain, atthe party that
Sale needed to have.

The event ended in a candid celebration, when Harry Hookey and
his brother Sam borrowing the drummer from the previous band, for an ultra-cool encore
of countrified covers, ranging from Prince's Purple Rain
to a dirty twangin' version of the Rolling
Stones Honky Tonk Women.

Not wanting the fun to end, Hookey, invited the stray revelers
to catch a maxi-taxi with him to his next gig at the Heyfield Bushfire Benefit. Well Done to every who made the Sale Music Festival such a great day!